Early Vote Tops 37,000

By Bill Dries

Early voting in advance of the Aug. 7 election day topped 37,000 through Saturday with less than 2,000 more voters in the Democratic state and federal primaries than those voting in the companion Republican primaries.

The 37,170 early voters are 6.9 percent of the county’s 537,553 voters.

Thus far in the early vote, 51.5 percent – or 19,151 voters – participated in the Democratic primaries with 46.9 percent – or 17,438 – voting in the Republican primaries. Another 581 early voters, accounting for 1.6 percent of the turnout so far, voted only in the county general elections and did not vote in either primary.

The turnout for each primary is considered an indicator of how the candidates in the partisan county general elections will fare since the candidates who advanced to the general election on the August ballot won primaries in May.

The county general election portion of the ballot also includes nonpartisan races for judicial positions that are on the ballot once every eight years as well as Shelby County Schools board races.

The last day of the early voting period is Saturday Aug. 2 at 21 locations across Shelby County regardless of where a voter’s election day precinct or residence is in the county.